Happy Halloween!!

We have had our fair share of fall and Halloween activities over the past few weeks. We have been to Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze, Pumpkin walk (put on by the city, really neat, over 1000 carved pumpkins along a trail and lit), playgroup trick or treat, and school parties. So we have already taken pictures of the Halloween costumes and by some miracle they have all decided to keep the same costumes for tonight. So here are the pictures!!!

Halloween card I made of the boys

Tigger - Cooper




Thomas the Train - Brock

Wizard - Cole

Count Dracula - Caleb

Update on Monica and Doug

Who would have thought it!? Don't know if you have seen the Stearman family blog recently, but Cori posted it for me last time, maybe you could do it this time? Couldn't figure it out, anyway you all know how quickly things can change for us (DAILY) so it seems that we are now going to stay here and Curt and Becky will be going to Snowflake. So I'll be losing my girlfriend here. Cheaper to send them than us they can both go where as I would have to stay here with my cave. Brink would have to pay for Doug’s motel If he went first. So we may still be here at Christmas time which means COLD WEATHER and probably snow too. Still like the country living? Personally they all can definitely have it!!! Doug wants to finish Calhan by Christmas may be aggressive but I'm with him there sooner the better!!!! Doug is still working late and with Curt gone I have been given Meridian Ranch for a few weeks and the other Peyton (place we call it) a real pain just the second half though they have to turn on the first half we finished, and turn off the second half. for those interested look on a map south of Denver, we are staying in Co. springs follow the 24 east you will first come across Falcon, (Meridian Ranch) then you will continue east to Peyton (pain in the buttocks) and continue east yet again you will come across Calhan (Doug’s job) . Anyway that's all we are doing here just trying to get pout hope all is well with everyone else, Happy birthday to all that I missed this year and I do still love you just kinda crazy sometimes.

LOVE TO ALL,
MONICA AND DOUG

Pumpkin Patch in Utah

Well great minds must think a like because we headed to the local pumpkin patch/corn maze here in Utah last week too. Last week our neighborhood all gathered at Black Island farms which is a corn maze/pumpkin patch /playground all in one. The kids had a blast we got to pick pumpkins, go through the kiddie maze, go down slides, ride in a train and have lunch. We were there for 3 hours and the kids were so sad to leave, me, not so much!!! I am glad that we go and do fun stuff like this because I really want to create memories with the boys but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming by myself. But I guess it is like they said in conference this month, Enjoy the Journey it will be gone soon!!!

Pumpkin Palooza

On Saturday we went to Pumpkin Palooza. There was more than a dozen pumpkins carved and decorated to be auctioned off to benefit Autism, but this was my favorite. Maybe it's the pie that put it over the top for me. The kids posed on the horses and got their picture taken with a poloroid camera. They've never seen such a thing and immediately wanted to know where the picture was; it hadn't fully developed. The things we take for granted!

The rest of the pictures we took are uploaded on the Walgreen's website.

Love you all!

C

News From Texas

Here is an update on Michelle and Family.

It looks like straight insanity until mid dec and this round of classes are over19 credits..hurts.

K left Friday morning.. stopped in Alabama with his sister, headed to DC to stay with friends (and watch football am guessing) then on to PA for a couple of days with his mom. Sudden, driving urge.. so told him to gohe wanted to do this a year ago, but the JOB wanted him more. he's done with the city energy/utility company now.. ducked out early from his contract.he was head hunted by another dept of defense company who wants him to work local.. that is a permanent position (no contract renewal issues year to year and he doesn't have to pay to park) and he won't travel much at all.

he's coaching Siera's volleyball team- she was on a wait list because they didn't have a coach. (she didn't make the school team.. we signed her up with the Y) this is week 5 (I think, it's a blur) but they won.. first time for the match. they were screaming- am sorry he missed it. last week they won the 1st game and got swollen heads and lost the other 2.. so no match win.. think part of it was other team's inexperience but they were very excited.. will not pop the bubble.

love all

M

Hello to all from Colorado

Pretty country (in a picture) personally can’t say I care for this place. No snow yet; just very cold weather most days. Still a few nice ones but they are getting fewer. Still hoping to get out by Christmas, if nothing else we will be in AZ at that time. Just picked up a huge 500 kv. lsub brand new boss man very happy about that.

I will be at our family reunion even if my old man ducks out. (flat keyboards suck can only hunt and peck on them)

That new job is called Snowflake appropriate being as we will be building it in snow just south(?) of Holbrook. They say its warmer there hope they won’t be wrong. But we are doing fine. Doug’s working long hours during the week due to colder weather and concrete not setting too well to finish, so I haven’t seen him much this last week. Incompetent subs don’t help much either. Curt, who has been running our other two jobs here with a little help from me, will be leaving to go to Snowflake on Monday and I will be stuck doing paperwork again. But only for one of them the other will be put into service. (that means turned on) He will be gone for a couple of weeks (BIG BUMMER) Hate having to do it, but no one else for the job right now.

Not much else going on. Just working trying to keep up with life and bills, and a house I haven’t seen in three months, and probably won’t see till Christmas time or after. (HUGE BUMMER) Anyone want to visit CA? Free house to stay in; just flush all my toilets and check it out for me.

I suppose Jerry has paid enough for enough of my air time for today
Love to all,
Monica and Doug

Christmas List

I emailed Mom and Dad and asked if it was alright if we posted the Christmas list here on the blog that way if anyone forgets who they have it will always be here! I am going to try to get the kids list because I think that is the one that would be easier to forget at least for me but here is the big kids list!

Michelle - Bo
Corinna - Michelle
Monica - CorrinaAndrea - MonicaTank - AndreaBear - TankBo - Bear

Merry Christmas!!!

Marshmallow Molecules

This week Gabriel and I studied molecules in Chemistry and I found this extremely interesting since I don't recall even taking Chemisty in school. For the experiment part of the lesson Gabriel made marshmallow molecules, and he let me label them. It was so much fun trying to identify the different atoms that went together to make different substances.

Gabriel and Cali worked on more experiments yesterday. I tried to hang with them, but eventually had to leave the room in order for the future chemists to further their education. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of the end results. The mess almost made me faint. So picture this: balsamic vinegar, milk, egg white, sugar, salt, baking soda and lemon juice spread out on the counter. They took samples from each one and mixed it with another to see what kind of, if any, chemical reaction could be observed. Of course the one they liked the best was the vinegar and baking soda, which probably accounted for 60% of the mess. The rest was a bit slimy, so I'm thinking egg white came in a close second.

I am so glad school is over for the week. Another mess like that is likely to put me over the edge.

4 DOWN 8 TO GO!!

Caleb has had quite the journey thus far with his teeth. His bottom two front teeth came out last year around this time. A little late compared to others in his school class but at least they came out on their own. The top two front teeth have had a mind of their own. They both grew in behind the baby teeth. Therefore making it impossible for Tank and I to pull them out. So off to the dentist we went on 2 seperate ocassions. The first time was pretty much a disaster but we got the tooth out and the second time went much smoother. Plus Caleb got a dollar from the denist and then another one from the tooth fairy that night both times! What a lucky kid!

News from the Our Family

I'm not sure how to move the pictures down to the paragraph that talks about them, but here they are.

Let's hear it for Christel not giving up on us!! Hip Hip Hooray!

Okay now for the latest news from Virginia.

Cali lost her first tooth on September 24. I get so queasy, it was hard to look. But she was so excited, she wanted to show everyone over and over. She can't wait for all of them to fall out.

Gabriel earned his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do and is eagerly training for his orange belt. Orange is his favorite color you know.

Both kids are doing great in school. We ordered our books a bit later, which most homeschoolers do it seems, our order was backlogged and so we started later than the public school kids. In the end it worked out fine because we also home schooled later into the summer. We switched math curriculums, which put me into a tail spin, but Saxon Math is one of the best and the kids are loving it. We put Cali into her own History and Science rather than have her study with Gabriel. So while Cali is in the Ancients and Life Science, Gabriel is doing Early Modern and Chemistry. The history and science are laid out so they coincide with what was happening during that time period. It's quite fascinating and I've learned a lot.

Todd made Fire Chief in August and his days have been longer than ever. He usually spends two 24 hour shifts at work now instead of just the one. He has done so much for the fire station, and this is not just a wife bragging. Morale is up 83% among the firemen, that may have something to do with the new 52 inch flat screens they now have in their individual bunkrooms. The firemen recently took on the MP's in a softball game and won, and for 9/11 Todd gave them the day down and hosted a bbq in honor of them. He has also had to demote one of his officers and an assistant chief. Not an easy move for him and he agonized for weeks about it. In the end it had to be done for the overall well being of the dept.

This week is fire prevention week so check your smoke dectectors and visit your local fire dept! Firemen love to show off their stuff. Especially if it means less calls in the middle of the night.

I can't wait to hear from the rest of you!

Love you all,

Corinna

Keeping up on The Stearmans

Well I will be the first to post and hopefully not the last!! I really hope this works because I really like to know what is going on with everyone! I will be happy to help anyone with posting pictures, messages etc. Happy blogging!!!